Liquidator apparent top bidder for Davis-Kidd bookstore in Memphis

Sarah and Dan Beeson browsed in Davis-Kidd Wednesday while it and four other properties of bankrupt Joseph-Beth Booksellers were auctioned in Cincinnati. A liquidator was the apparent buyer of the Memphis store.

The future of Davis-Kidd Booksellers remained in doubt Wednesday after a liquidator was the apparent top bidder for the store.

The auction of Davis-Kidd and four other stores in the Joseph-Beth Booksellers chain concluded, but lawyers involved in the negotiations did not release details.

"Counsel for the debtor is preparing a report of sale for filing with the court. Debtor and buyer are working on a press release now," stated Ellen Arvin Kennedy, attorney for Joseph-Beth.

The Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader, however, reported late Wednesday that the Gordon Brothers liquidation chain won bids for Davis-Kidd and a Joseph-Beth bookstore in Fredericksburg, Va. A later deal, however, transfers the Virginia store to the Books-a-Million bookstore chain, but Memphis was not part of the transaction.

Gordon Brothers is among the liquidators closing more than 200 Borders bookstores, Bloomberg reported last month. Borders filed for bankruptcy in February.

Neil Van Uum, president of Joseph-Beth Booksellers, had joined forces with the owner of a Lexington mall, but the mall owner pulled his financial support and outbid him for the Joseph-Beth stores there and in Cincinnati and Cleveland, the Lexington newspaper said.

The auction lasted most of the day at the law office of Dinsmore & Shohl in Cincinnati. The proceedings started at 9 a.m. Memphis time, and not until 3:57 p.m. did Kennedy e-mail: "Just finished..."